


Nerves

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 12:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19791157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: She would have never said she would feel inexplicably wrapped around Narcissa’s voice. Not in the way that night had happened and yet she had been unable to shake off the feeling. Unless, she admitted to herself, that growing curiosity hadn’t been new. Not by a long shot.





	Nerves

**Author's Note:**

> Originally asked by brightsidekindagal back at tumblr under the premise of writing a prompt based on the sentence "Go on, look at it, it won’t bite”  
> And well, this one was interesting xd Majorly because I’m still working on what kind of headcanons I have for these two. I wanted to make a sort of “established-relationship” thingie at first but I also wanted to see if I could do something closer to what I tend to do (and the ones who might have read my SwanQueen stuff already knows this) witch is pre-relationship stuff. So after I don’t know how many re-writes…  
> Oh, also; So, for the ones that read Proposition… I don’t even want to check how long ago, I haven’t abandoned it. Life has just been a bitch in many aspects and my will of writing depleted faster that you can say “Rita Skeeter is inside that glass jar”. Either way I plan on finishing that story as quick as I’m able to but, for now, have this small one shot :P

“Go on, look at it, it won’t bite”

It wasn’t the sentence itself but the way it was said -with a smirk already lacing the vowels, and just the softest echoes of that accent Hermione had learned to immediately make her think of how the older witch had been raised: diction, manners, drilled into her.

She glanced at the book the blonde witch was pointing at with her right hand, fingers folded against the palm with only the index and middle finger barely raised upwards in a way that made her swallow thickly before she focused back on the filigrees that run through the cover of the book. Silver and emerald glimmering through, the book’s title was hidden under inscriptions made after it had been created; enchantments and jinxes rolling out of it in almost physical waves that colored the air around the pedestal in where it was propped up against. It was a treasure, the younger witch mused as she took a step closer to the book; her footsteps resonating inside the library. Library in which Narcissa had led her after Hermione had knocked on her door; duty and work forgotten the moment the other woman had been the one who had greeted her in as opposed to the house-elf she had been expecting.

Last time Hermione had seen Narcissa had been at Teddy’s fifth birthday. Stagnant silence had clung to some of the conversations through the night, but the brunette witch had been unable to really focus on it nor the sullen glances Ron had been giving her due to their recent break-up. Her eyes had been glued to Narcissa’s silhouette as the blonde kept dotting around the birthday boy as well as Andromeda’s side; soft-spoken conversations always seeming to be happening between the sisters in a way that Hermione had felt her head spin as she had tried to shake off the bewitched-like feeling she had gotten once Narcissa had walked her way inside the house; cautious, yes, but also holding a self-assuredness that was a mere repetition of the details the Daily Prophet had already talked about after the older woman’s divorce.

She would have never said she would feel inexplicably wrapped around Narcissa’s voice. Not in the way that night had happened and yet she had been unable to shake off the feeling. Unless, she admitted to herself, that growing curiosity hadn’t been new. Not by a long shot.

The birthday had been the last time but Hermione had seen the other woman plenty of times before as the woman came and went to the Ministry; papers being signed once the trials were done and over. She had felt the restlessness, the need to halt and savor the moments in where she was able to exchange words, however curt they could be, with Narcissa, way before and the guilt, the self-deprecating realization she felt powerless to stop the headache-worthy need had slowly ebbed away as Narcissa positioned herself farther and farther away from her previous stance of the wife of a Death Eater.

Which had been the reason when, after being asked who would be able to go to the Black Mansion and check some of the books regarding the family’s information on creatures they had either smuggled or bought to others two centuries ago, Hermione had appointed herself for the task. 

And so there she was now; glancing at the book Narcissa had told her was a family’s heirloom and the tips of her fingers tingling with a mix of nervousness and need she wasn’t exactly sure how to explain. She had grown interested in the blonde in a very slow way but once she had realized it, it had been difficult to reign over the interest. She was curious by nature after all; there was something around the Black woman that made her squirm.

She was stalling, she knew as much, and she could sense Narcissa herself could see it as well; blue eyes sparkling in a warmer tone that made the brunette’s throat constrict as the older woman moved closer to her right; shoulders almost touching.

Angry at her own nerves, she rolled her shoulders a few times, deciding on focusing on the task at hand.

“You said that, but I’m not entirely sure these are friendly.” She was pointing at the jinxes, already going for her wand. She could be curious, but she wasn’t stupid.

“I am giving it to you on my own volition.” Narcissa’s smile changed; from smirk to something friendlier and Hermione could feel her muscles relax a little. “It won’t set the curses off.”

Eyeing the older woman for a longer time than what it would have been necessary, Hermione finally moved close enough to the book to pry it open, filigrees shimmering under the light as she turned the cover open. Narcissa had been truthful; the book opened; nothing rushing towards neither of them the second Hermione peered into an already detailed index of names and dates she was sure she would need to check with the ones her department had painfully been cataloging for the past months.

“Can I take it with me?” She steeled her voice a little at the end; lips pressed together and Narcissa merely hummed before she crossed her arms in front of her, the black and emerald-colored robe she wore catching Hermione’s eyes for the quickest of seconds before she was back to the book.

“As long as you promise to return it. In-person.” The last bit was said as an almost afterthought, but Hermione still swallowed as she nodded, not entirely able to do anything else as she took her wand from the inside of her jacket, fingers clutching the wood. A few spells after, the book was safely put into a box. One that Hermione quickly grabbed as she turned towards Narcissa, the blonde’s blue eyes eyeing her as she moved.

“Thank you.” She said and there it was again, the swirl of nerves at the very bottom of her stomach; not stronger than before but certainly more acute. “Until next time?” She hated the breathiness in her voice, but she refused to look away as the older witch hummed, following her outside.

“It’s a date.”


End file.
